Grand Teton National Park offers exceptional wildlife viewing. The park greatly benefits from only being a few miles south of Yellowstone National Park. The expansive and wild Yellowstone ecosystem allows for fantastic wildlife viewing of not only large mammals, but also many bird species. Grand Teton National Park is famous for it's high quality moose watching, as well as elk , bear, bison and swan. Golden and bald eagles soar overhead, while marmots scurry on alpine slopes. Grand Teton National Park truly is a wonderful place to observe wildlife.

Grand Teton National Park is grizzly country, so practice bear safety precautions such as hiking with bear spray, making noise while hiking, and keeping food and odors out of tents.

Download the Grand Teton National Park Mammal Finding Guide.

Download the Grand Teton National Park Bird Finding Guide.

Moose: Oxbow Bend, Two Ocean Lake area, Gros Ventre area
Bears: Cascade Canyon, Two Ocean Lake area, Lizard Creek area
Bison: Sagebrush flats from Gros Ventre to north entrance
Coyote: All over park
Eagles: Bald eagles along the Snake River, lakes. Golden eagles over the sagebrush flats and canyons.
Elk: Jenny Lake entrance, NE entrance near Snake River, Two Ocean Lake area
Otters/beavers: Watery areas of the park in lowlight hours
Moose: Oxbow Bend, Two Ocean Lake area, Gros Ventre area
Mule Deer: All over park, Ocean Lake area, Gros Ventre area
Pronghorn: East of Jenny Lake entrace
Swans: Oxbow Bend
Wolves: Rare, hard to see


Grand Teton National Park is one of those rare parks where the wildlife viewing is just as amazing as the scenery. This environment provides for simply outstanding nature photography. For those with a standard point and shoot, Grand Teton National Park will offer great images. If you have a 3x zoom and you want some wildllife shots, hang out around the Jenny Lake area where the pines meet the sagebrush. Or you can try Oxbow Bend for the swans and possible moose. For those with a DSLR, make sure you bring a standard zoom and a long zoom. You do not want to be short on gear in Grand Teton National Park. On a 1.6x crop body, an 18-40 or 50 standard zoom will work very well for landscapes(28-80 on a 1.6x crop) , and you will at least want 200mm for wildlife. An ultra wide angle lens is not necessary for Grand Teton National Park. Using an ultra wide angle lens to photograph the Tetons from the sagebrush flats will render the mountains small and unimpressive.